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No Fault Insurance Lawyer Settles Car Accident Lawsuit

Our Michigan No-Fault insurance lawyers recently settled a Michigan No-Fault claim on behalf of a 69-year-old client against her auto insurance company. She suffered serious injuries as she was entering her husband’s motor vehicle in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Our client was leaving William Beaumont Hospital and had been taken in a wheelchair to the curb outside awaiting her husband to pick her up in his car. As she was in the process of getting into the car from the wheelchair, she fell back onto the cement and suffered serious injuries which included a fractured right tibia and fibula. Her treatment included the casting of her leg and multiple sessions of physical therapy and rehabilitation. The no-fault insurer failed to make payment of attendant care and replacement service benefits which she incurred as a direct result of the accident.

Medical expenses are a major type of benefit available under Michigan No-Fault insurance laws for those injured in an accident involving a motor vehicle. An injured person is entitled to be paid “allowable expenses consisting of all reasonable charges incurred for reasonably necessary products, services, and accommodations for an injured person’s care, recovery or rehabilitation”. Also, under this category of benefits, are attendant care benefits which are services provided to the injured person by a friend or family member similar to what a home nurse would provide. These types of allowable expenses are a lifetime benefit so long as the expenses are related to the accident at issue. Similarly, an injured person is entitled under the No-Fault Act to make a claim for up to $20.00 a day for replacement services which are household chore type services provided by a friend or family member regarding chores that the injured person would have done for themselves but for the injury sustained in the accident. Replacement services are payable for up to three years after the accident.

As a result of the accident, our client incurred months of attendant care services and replacement services provided by her husband and family to assist her, which went unreimbursed by the no-fault insurance company. Given this, we filed a lawsuit in the Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit, Michigan.

The case settled for $27,000.00, which represents virtually every penny owed to our client in past due attendant care and replacement service benefits. The settlement was reached shortly after the lawsuit was filed, and was settled before any significant discovery or deposition needed to be taken. The agreement also left open the right of our client to continue to claim no-fault benefits going forward.

If the auto insurance company has failed to pay an injured person’s allowable expenses for replacement service, you should contact our no-fault lawyers immediately. We will obtain all past due and underpaid benefits for services provided in the past. There are strict time deadlines for filing Michigan No-Fault insurance claims, so it is important that you contact us immediately at 800-606-1717.